These last few months, I've missed way more local music shows than I've caught.
Last night, the plan was to attend the monthly Huntington Folk Society showcase at the "Hard Luck Cafe", hosted at the Huntington Cinema Arts Centre. The show featured someone named John John Brown, an out-of-town artist I wasn't familiar with, and local minstrel Steve Robinson. I first saw Robinson more than a decade ago at one of Frank Walker's benefits for Prune Belly Syndrome. I picked up his debut album, Back Roads, and I'm pretty sure I played a cut or two on my old Local Insomniac Music radio show (although I could be wrong here. I can't remember if I was off the air by the time the LP came out.)
Anyway, I pulled the album out and gave it a couple of spins this week, just to get ready for the show. But things didn't work out the way I'd hoped.
I left the house at 6PM for a 7:30 show. Now I think I've been to the Cinema Arts Centre twice in my life, and the last time was about eight years ago when I took my daughter to see a Shadow Play version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
But a lot has changed in eight years. These days, I have some problems with my night driving, especially if I'm driving somewhere where I don't really know where I'm going and I have to try to look at road signs. (No, I don't have a GPS, either in my car or on my flip phone.)
I printed out the directions on the theatre's web site, only to discover that they leave out one important piece of information -- you're supposed to get off the LIE at Exit 51 and head north. But while the directions on their phone line highlight the fact that there's a fork in the road that you're supposed to veer left on (as I learned later, when it was too late), the direction on the website omitted this little tidbit. So when I found myself in the right lane coming up to the fork, I went right. (After all, without knowing the correct route, it was a 50/50 choice, so I figured I might as well pick the one that matched the lane I was already in.) Naturally, it was the wrong choice.
I turned left when I got to Route 25, and drove for awhile, looking for Park Ave. After a but, I pulled into a shopping center and called Denise for the exact address and phone number. (I'd have looked it up myself, but hello ... flip phone!) I pulled out and kept going. But at some point I hit another fork, and turned around.
By this time, it was getting close to showtime, and I was hungry and grumpy. I pulled into a Burger King parking lot, and tried to call a friend I was planning to meet at the show. I figured since I was having so much trouble seeing the street signs, maybe he could give me a landmark for where Jericho intercepted Park. But there was no answer. So I called the phone number for the arts center, but of course, there was no option to speak to a live person. I listened to their recorded directions to see if they said anything helpful, and it was here I learned that if I'd simply gone left at that first fork and kept going straight, I'd have gotten directly to the cinema without even turning. Thanks a whole hell of a lot, guys.
The directions indicated a route from the intersection of Route 25 and Route 110, so I got back on 25 and started heading west towards Route 110. Or so I thought. I must have driven for 20 minutes or so before I happened to see a sign that indicated I was now driving on Route 25 East. By this time, I must have already been well past the Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts, because I moment later, I came to the intersection of Route 25 and Route 347. I have no idea how I got turned around and started heading east when I thought I was going west. But it was already well past show time, I was still hungry (and my blood sugar was low), and honestly, I was having a little trouble getting my bearings. So I decided to lick my wounds, get something to eat, and just go home.
I did get to catch up on some (very varied) music in my car, burning through Slim Whitman's Greatest Hits, the new Of Montreal CD, the new Kesha CD, and a couple of songs from the new Torres album. And I felt a little better after I got a burger in my belly. But it was a bit of a humbling experience.
So since the beginning of the year, I've missed shows I'd planned to attend for Cassandra House (unexpected sellout), James O'Malley (lack of sleep) and Steve Robinson (got my fool ass lost). I suppose I'm lucky I was able to find my way the five minutes from my house to the Braceland Gallery to see Roger Silverberg.
I've got a few more local artists on the calendar over the next few months, so we'll see how it goes. I've been joking with my daughter that Im going to go into Bellport Village to the store with the big sign that says "Companions for Seniors", put on my most pathetic face, and ask the person at the counter, "Will you be my companion?" Pretty sad.
In any event, I'm not ditching the flip phone. But I am going to start using Denise's old GPS in my car.
Peace.
